Meet the Man Who Makes $600 a Month Selling Crickets

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When Jeff Neal’s wife told him she wanted to quit her job to stay at home with their kids, he had to think about how to make one income work. With over $21,000 in student loans, there wasn’t much extra money lying around. Losing another income stream would be difficult.

But rather than give up hope, Neal did something no one expected. He launched a side business that helped bring in extra money: selling crickets online.

Yes, you heard that right. Crickets.

Now, Neal makes $600 a month selling bugs online at The Critter Depot, which helps him pay off his debt. Read on to learn more about this odd side hustle and how Neal has turned it into a steady income stream.

Searching for a Side Hustle

Neal graduated from Temple University and got a job as a project manager. While he made a good salary, he had student loan debt and a growing family. When his wife decided she wanted to stay home with the kids, Neal knew he had to make changes.

“My wife wanted to stay home, so I had to take full responsibility as the sole provider,” he says.

Since his full-time job involves e-commerce, he focused his side-hustle search on online jobs. After doing extensive research, he decided to put all of his efforts on one specific niche.

The area that he identified was in the pet industry; reptile and exotic animal owners need live crickets to feed their pets, but getting them can be difficult — and expensive. So, Neal’s site caters to pet owners, selling crickets of various sizes in bulk.

But before you rush out and buy tanks and crickets to replicate Neal’s success, you should know his approach is even more interesting. He actually doesn’t deal with the crickets at all. Instead, his business is a drop shipping company.

What Is Drop Shipping?

Drop shipping is a business model where the store doesn’t stock any of the items it sells. Instead, when a customer purchases a product, the drop shipper works with a manufacturer — or in this case, a cricket supplier — to fulfill the order. The drop shipper never comes into contact with the product, so wrangling crickets isn’t part of Neal’s day.

“I don’t know anything about raising crickets,” he admits. “They have short life spans and unique nutritional and environmental needs. It’s a lot of work that takes a lot of knowledge. When I set up my business, I found someone who breeds crickets. He takes care of them and ships them; I just handle the orders.”

For customers, drop shipping is a seamless process, whether it’s through Amazon or a private site. Most of the time, you don’t know when you’re buying from a drop shipper. Once your order is placed, the drop shipper works with the supplier to place the order, and you receive the item like you normally would.

Drop shipping can be a mutually beneficial relationship between the seller and supplier. In Neal’s case, he has the marketing expertise and skills to build a successful website and business. That gets the cricket farmer more exposure and more orders than he would get on his own. Neal estimates that he generates about $3,000 in sales each month from The Critter Depot and his cut is $600.

Previously, Neal primarily sold crickets on Amazon. But meeting Amazon’s strict standards is hard when you’re shipping live insects. He ended up taking his sales to just his website, which requires more work for him each day to build traffic.

His new income stream allows him to take advantage of other opportunities, too. He recently purchased the site Jason Coupon King, which generates another $700 a month in revenue.

Balancing a Side Gig With Life & Work

While Neal’s side hustle is successful, he has to balance his work with his full-time job and his family. But that’s why he says drop shipping is a great option. It gives him the flexibility he needs while still allowing him to earn extra money.

“I don’t have a television, so when I come home from work, I just spend time playing with the kids and catching up with my wife,” says Neal. “Once they’re in bed, I work on optimizing my websites, contributing to forums and building links to my sites.”

Making Extra Money

While selling crickets might not be for you, Neal’s story is just another example of the many ways you can make money on the side. If you’re struggling to make ends meet, or need more income to pay down debt or boost your emergency fund, launching a side hustle can be the right approach.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Neal

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Kat Tretina is a contributor to Student Loan Hero who writes about student loan repayment, side hustles, and other personal finance topics. Her work has appeared in publications like the Huffington Post, Money Magazine, Business Insider, and more. See below for her most recent articles.

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